Clothing Company Replaces Models With Customer Photos, and the Results Are Amazing

By
Laura Beck

Feb 22, 2014

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Free People, the place to buy $200 crop tops that look like something your mom wore to Woodstock, is launching a special new section on its website today called "FP Me." On FP Me, they've replaced models with photos of customers wearing Free People clothing. So, essentially, customers are replacing models on their site, but there are a few catches. First, FP Me is only running for two weeks and second, the real customers models aren't being compensated. Actually, they paid for the clothing they're modeling, and so basically, they paid to advertise Free People's faux-hippie wear. Huh.

Interestingly, the company isn't doing this because it really loves the idea of empowering women by using photos of non-models to sell their clothing. No, they're doing it because it WORKS:

One year ago, Free People launched FPMe, an online community where customers can upload shoppable photos of themselves in their Free People outfits. Additionally, online items are often accompanied by photos of customers wearing them. Data from the past year has shown a 42 percent improvement in the same session conversion rate (i.e. someone buys something) on FreePeople.com when FP Me Pics are associated with product on the page.

This is cool because it shows that women respond well when they see the clothing on women who look more like them. Hopefully that'll be the lesson that retailers take away from this — expanding their idea of what a model is can lead to buckoo bucks and free publicity. Yes, let's see tall and thin models, but let's also see short and thin models! And tall and curvy models! And short and fat models! Let's use models who demonstrate what people actually look like.

Maybe then I'll actually buy a $196 dress that uses less material than a dinner napkin and makes me look like a kite.